Christine Quinnâ€™s Political Suicide

Quinnâ€™s antics â€“ to remove Carsonâ€™s name from the original list of 52 submitted to the City Council â€“ may get her elected mayor of a Texas town; not New York City. This isnâ€™t the 1950s anymore. Black people are actually allowed to vote

Editorial

The bid to rename a section of Gates Avenue in Brooklyn after Black Nationalist Sonny Carson was voted down yesterday in the New York City Council 25 to 15. The vote also dooms any chances that City Council speaker Christine Quinn had for a future successful run for mayor.

Quinn’s antics – to remove Carson’s name from the original list of 52 submitted to the City Council – may get her elected mayor of a Texas town; not New York City. Perhaps Quinn should tell the people of Bed-Stuy whom they should pick as their heroes deserving of honor. This isn’t the 1950s anymore. Black people are actually allowed to vote now and won’t forget Quinn’s illogical ploy; she has committed political suicide. This is the same Quinn who sponsored Al Jolson, of blackface fame, as a beneficiary of a street renaming.

Whatever shortcomings Carson may have had in his life was more than made up for by his positive activism in the Black community – the Brooklyn neighborhood where he lived, fighting against drug dealers; fighting for the creation of Medgar Evers College; fighting for the Black Burial Ground in lower Manhattan; fighting for the creation of the Committee To Honor Black Heroes; and, fighting for street names to honor Malcolm X; Harriet Tubman; and Marcus Garvey.

Going by Quinn’s logic that Carson shouldn’t be honored with a street renaming because he had once declared anti-pathy towards whites, then the names of Malcolm; Tubman; and, Garvey, should also come down. We are waiting for Quinn to launch that campaign.

Shamefully, some Black council members also were intimidated by the threat that Speaker Quinn wields –through her power to dole budgetary largesse—into either not showing up at all, as in the cases of Thomas White and Larry Seabrook, or abstaining from voting, as in the cases of Leroy Comrie; Inez Dickens; Kendall Stewart; Dr. Mathieu Eugene; and Latisha James.

Quinn has polarized New York City in such a manner that Carson never even could have dreamed possible. Quinn, politically, is the biggest loser here. Carson's name will be re-introduced in the future and he will be remembered when Quinn's name has settled in the dustbin of history.

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